Deals With Demons
by Crunchysunrises
Summary: No one ever told Sakura that there's no winning when you make deals with demons.
1. Chapter 1

I have no rights to or within the Naruto franchise, copyright, or trademark. This is for fun, not profit. And I especially disclaim any responsibility for the red-eyed one. That one's just pure evil.

Edit: Someone asked me where I got the prompts. The ones I used in plotting out this story:

100_colors (one table of 100 prompts)

iy_no_kakera (both tables – one hundred prompts each for a total of two hundred prompts)

25_foods (Table One – twenty-five prompts)

30_lies (thirty prompts)

30_dates (thirty in the table and ten extra for a total of forty prompts)

50_shinobi provided 50 prompts.

30_beverages provided 30 prompts.

30_lies provided 30 prompts.

I… think that's it. If you know of any more really awesome/fun prompt tables, I'm always looking for more! (Although I'm beginning to suspect that IY has the best prompts…)

* * *

**001. Red**

As she fell through the darkness, Sakura automatically tried to reinforce her body with her chakra. It was impossible and foolish since her body was somewhere far away but it was impossible to fall to her death without trying to save herself. When she landed, it was not with a jarring thump but rather with a soft splash.

A flagstone floor wavered under the surface of the shallow river that she was standing ankle-deep, giant metal bars gleamed dully, and a humongous, shadowy form paced behind them.

When Sakura's eyes met the malevolent, red gaze of the kyuubi, she shuddered.

* * *

**096. Writer's Choice – Metal**

"You have to help me heal Naruto!"

"I cannot."

"If you don't, you'll die with Naruto!"

The Kyuubi chuckled. It was the worst sound that Sakura had ever heard.

"He's dying because I'm dying." Sakura literally felt her heart skip a beat. The creature's grin forced her back a step. "I'm dragging that brat to hell with me."

"No! You can't!" Enraged, Sakura surged toward the vicious creature. She pounded her fists against the unyielding metal bars of the kyuubi's prison. "Naruto isn't allowed to die! I won't live in a world without Naruto!"

"Then… you'll have to… save us."

* * *

**079. Scarlet**

The triumphant note in the kyuubi's voice made Sakura hesitate. The kyuubi was evil. If she saved it, she would never get that smut off of her soul. If she let the kyuubi die, she would have to live in a world without Naruto.

Sakura squared her shoulders.

"What do I have to do?"

Long sharp claws flashed between the bars and ripped into her flesh.

Sakura screamed. Burning, searing pain ripped through her abdomen then ate through her being. She had a fleeting impression of a wicked grin with too many teeth before the world dissolved into scarlet flames.

* * *

**006. Green**

Sakura groaned. Her abdomen ached abominably. She glanced around warily. She was still in the clearing where she and Naruto had been ambushed but now it bore none of the marks of the previous battle – the trees were intact, the ground was flat, and there were no mangled bodies in sight.

It was beautiful.

But there was no sign of Naruto.

Sakura tried to force herself to her feet then fell back with a gasp of pain, her fingers digging harshly into the green grass. Sakura grimly molded her chakra into a healing jutsu.

"You'd better not be dead, Naruto!"

* * *

**041. Forest**

Sakura sprinted through the forest. The rough bark scraped her fingers bloody as she threw herself from one branch to the next. Her heart, lodged in her throat, pounded in time with the mantra echoing through her head.

'_Let him be in the village! Let Tsunade-shishou have healed him! Let someone have come looking for us when we were late!_'

She should have known better than to go and ask the kyuubi for help! She should never have dropped her guard! She should never have left Naruto unprotected!

'_I'll save you without the damn kyuubi! Wait for me Naruto! Please!'_

_

* * *

  
_

**010. Gray**

She spotted the Hokage's monument long before she saw the village itself. It loomed over the village, a symbol of protection and reassurance to those who lived in its shadow; an ominous threat to Konoha's enemies. When Sakura got a clear look at the monument, she skidded to a halt so suddenly that she literally fell out of her tree.

Stunned and bruised, she scrambled to her feet. Sakura was at the very top of the tree a heartbeat later. Horror pounded through her body.

Sakura pinched the inside of her arm viciously.

There were only _four_ giant, gray faces.


	2. Chapter 2

I have no rights to or within the Naruto franchise, copyright, or trademark. This is for fun, not profit. And I especially disclaim any responsibility for the one who is plotting.

Edit: Someone asked me where I got the prompts. The ones I used in plotting out this story:

100_colors (one table of 100 prompts)

iy_no_kakera (both tables – one hundred prompts each for a total of two hundred prompts)

25_foods (Table One – twenty-five prompts)

30_lies (thirty prompts)

30_dates (thirty in the table and ten extra for a total of forty prompts)

50_shinobi provided 50 prompts.

30_beverages provided 30 prompts.

30_lies provided 30 prompts.

I… think that's it. If you know of any more really awesome/fun prompt tables, I'm always looking for more! (Although I'm beginning to suspect that IY has the best prompts…)

* * *

**018. Brown**

Frowning, Sakura picked at the brown bark with a ragged fingernail. Clearly the kyuubi had done more than split her open from sternum to navel. It was insane but there were only three reasons Sakura could see for the loss of Tsunade-shishou's face from the monument: she was in a genjutsu, the monument had been destroyed, or the kyuubi had somehow thrown her back in time.

"Kai!"

Nothing.

After her three previous attempts, Sakura had not had much hope that anything would happen.

So it was option number three: the kyuubi had somehow thrown her back in time.

Now what?

* * *

**032. Topaz**

Sakura headed for the nearest entirely civilian village in Fire Country. All of the newspapers and magazines confirmed her worst fears: the kyuubi had carelessly tossed her into the past.

She could change everything. She could screw everything up.

She could drink so much alcohol that she forgot her name.

A week later she woke up in a cheap motel room. She was nude except for a delicate golden necklace with a giant topaz in the center of it and the newspaper draped over her stomach.

Sakura squinted at the date until the swimming numbers arranged themselves properly.

She groaned.

* * *

**5 ****未来****Future**

Uchiha Madara woke with a start, knowing exactly where and when he was.

'_It's impossible for any human to turn back time! No one has the power to steal all of my planning, hard work, and accomplishments! No one! Is this a genjutsu? But it's impossible to trap __**me**__ in a genjutsu!'_

Madara sat on his futon, calculating which impossibility was less impossible.

In the end, Uchiha Madara believed in himself above all other things.

_'Sasuke was the last of this miserable clan. I'll just have to figure out how he rewound time. He'll scream for forgiveness before his death.'  
_

* * *

**77 ****尊い****It is valuable. **

After spending three years running in a race that she did not know she was participating in which had actually started before her birth, Sakura finally had time.

No more reacting to Uchiha Madara's pulled strings.

She needed to do was to kill Orochimaru, destroy Akatsuki, and stop Sasuke.

'_If I assassinate or reform Uchiha Itachi then there won't be a Uchiha Clan Massacre. Sasuke won't become a selfish, vengeance obsessed lunatic. If I wait for the chuunin exams, I can kill Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. As for Akatsuki… eh, I'll pick them off as I go along._'

* * *

**040. Khaki**

Burning her red vest with its Haruno clan symbol physically hurt Sakura. It had been nearly impossible for her to don its khaki replacement. Her hair fell in her face without her forehead protector to hold it back.

It would hurt to go back to her home village. She was no longer Haruno Sakura – beloved, feared, and respected by her peers. She would be viewed as an untrustworthy stranger. She would be nameless, friendless, broke, and homeless.

But it was a well known fact that Haruno Sakura would do anything for Uzumaki Naruto, no matter how badly it hurt her.


	3. Chapter 3

I have no rights to or within the Naruto franchise, copyright, or trademark. This is for fun, not profit. And I especially disclaim any responsibility for the red-eyed one. That one's just pure evil.

Edit: Someone asked me where I got the prompts. The ones I used in plotting out this story:

100_colors (one table of 100 prompts)

iy_no_kakera (both tables – one hundred prompts each for a total of two hundred prompts)

25_foods (Table One – twenty-five prompts)

30_lies (thirty prompts)

30_dates (thirty in the table and ten extra for a total of forty prompts)

50_shinobi provided 50 prompts.

30_beverages provided 30 prompts.

30_lies provided 30 prompts.

I… think that's it. If you know of any more really awesome/fun prompt tables, I'm always looking for more! (Although I'm beginning to suspect that IY has the best prompts…)

* * *

**23. cabbage patch**

Neji went out of his way to entice his shy, adorable cousin with ribbons, flowers, and smiles.

When Hinata, smiling so softly and sweetly, slipped her chubby baby's hand into his, Neji's grin was blinding.

"He's a bit smitten" Hizashi confided.

"But she adores him!" Hiashi laughed. "How could he not be?"

After the Curse Seal, Hizashi watched Hinata fuss over Neji. Neji, not understanding her connection to his pain, allowed her to pat his hair (and get her fingers tangled in it), tell him meandering baby stories, and kiss the mark better.

Watching their closeness, Hizashi's smile was bittersweet.

* * *

**057. Bittersweet**

Bittersweet joy shot through her heart as she approached her home village's gates. It was good to be home.

Sakura's lips thinned grimly when the gate guards eyed her warily instead of welcoming back with bright smiles and laughter.

She was strong enough to survive outside of a hidden village. She could become a wanderer or set up a clinic in a sleepy little village far away from the cares and sorrows of being a shinobi.

But Naruto was here. Naruto would be a shinobi. He would be Hokage.

There was nowhere else in the world Sakura wanted to be.

* * *

**049. Straw**

The Hokage tipped his straw hat forward. Its wide brim obscured most of his face from her anxious gaze.

"Why should I allow you to become one of Konoha's trusted shinobi? You won't even tell me your name."

"It doesn't matter. I'm not that person anymore."

His gaze was disbelieving.

"So no one has ever left their past behind to become a Konoha shinobi?"

Sakura knew very well that some of the greatest shinobi the village had ever produced were such people or were the children of such people. Minato, Kakashi, and Naruto were such people.

"Welcome to Konohagakure… Sakura."

* * *

**012. Mahogany**

Sakura startled when he called her that name.

"How –"

"With your coloring, it was an obvious choice" the old man said a trifle smugly as he tapped his mahogany pipe out. "Your skills will be tested and a rank will be assigned to you. After a trial period, we will discuss whether or not you may stay in this village, Sakura."

"Thank you Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi pinned her with a sharp look.

"Don't thank me yet. ANBU Wolf."

A familiar form with a shock of familiar silver hair appeared at the Hokage's elbow.

Sakura's heart leapt into her throat.

"Yo."

* * *

**093. Cotton Candy**

The girl had been brash and confident when speaking with the Hokage. The moment she had set eyes on him, she had become pale and shaken.

Did she know him?

Surely he would remember meeting or even fighting someone with such wretched hair. It looked like someone had spun cotton candy out into fine threads and glued it to her head. Her eyes were large as they raked over him, absorbing every detail of his mask and person.

"Do I have to fight you?"

For all her hesitancy, her voice was tinged with eagerness and longing.

"Not yet."

"Too bad."

* * *

**034. Garnet**

Kurenai, now only a couple of years older than herself, gazed at Sakura with steady garnet eyes. Sakura smirked as she pulled on her battered leather gloves.

"Begin!"

Kurenai immediately melted into a tree that wrapped itself around Sakura.

"Kai!"

Even as the newly minted illusion shattered around her, Sakura threw herself at Kurenai. When the other chuunin leaped into the nearest tree, Sakura shattered it into splinters with one well placed punch.

She heard Kakashi suck in a sharp breath behind his mask.

Sakura grinned sharply even as she tossed a handful of shuriken at Kurenai.

'_Watch me, Kaka-sensei!_'


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the delays but I had computer problems.**

**I don't have any right to the Naruto characters, copyright, franchise, or trademark.**

**

* * *

**

008. White

Sakura gazed at the white walls of her new apartment with trepidation. It was so tiny! And empty! And she was so broke!

"How much do I owe you for this?" she asked ANBU Wolf numbly.

'_Why are you doing this? You don't even know me._'

"Nothing." He dumped her new headband and chuunin vest into her arms. "I got your pay advanced so you could rent this dump."

"Don't call it that!" Sakura shouted and swung her fist at Kakashi's head.

He darted away, unscathed.

"Later Sakura-chan!"

Laughing mockingly, ANBU Wolf disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sakura smiled.

* * *

**011. Lavender**

When Sakura presented herself at the mission desk that afternoon, she was issued a D-rank mission: to rescue from a tree the most evil cat Konoha had ever spawned.

Two hours later Sakura grabbed the mission clerk by the throat and hauled him across the desk. He squeaked and clawed at her hand futilely.

"I want a challenge."

His pretty lavender eyes slid away from her own.

"I can't. I'm sorry."

Sakura understood. No team wanted to trust their lives to an unknown shinobi.

She roughly shoved the chuunin back across the desk and stalked out of the mission room.

* * *

**027. Cream**

Sakura marched into the hospital. It stank of infection, disinfectants, old blood, and despair. The walls that Tsunade would someday paint a soothing cream color were currently a dingy shade of pea green.

She marched past the emergency room full of injured people and straight up to the nurse on duty at the intake desk.

"I'm a fully trained medic. I want to be evaluated and hired."

The nurse shot her a disinterested look. "In what area?"

"Pardon?"

"Poisons? Surgery? Research? Sealing? Need I go on?"

Sakura glared. "I can do anything!"

The nurse eyed her critically then sneered. "Doubtful."

* * *

**035. Olive**

The hospital's head medic was away and had not designated anyone to act as the head medic in his absence. Shizune, the head medic under Tsunade, had never left the hospital unattended. The sheer stupidity of his actions enraged Sakura.

She stomped into the waiting area and raised her voice to be heard over the people packed into the emergency room.

"I'm a qualified medic. If anyone wants to be seen immediately, I'll be outside the front door."

It was several agonizing minutes before a young woman and her toddler joined Sakura.

"My son shoved an olive up his nose."

* * *

**033. Cornflower**

Sakura fished the appropriate tools out of her medic kit and swiftly removed the nasal blockage.

"How much?"

"Whatever you like."

The young mother passed Sakura several notes. "What's your name?"

"Sakura."

"I hope to see you again!"

The young mother was replaced by a genin whose teammate had stabbed him in the hand.

"You have to come see me tomorrow" Sakura told the genin who nodded quite seriously.

The genin was replaced by a blond boy with cornflower blue eyes.

"I can only pay you in ramen coupons."

Sakura swallowed the lump in her throat. "That's fine."

Naruto beamed.


End file.
